Flare - Barry Allen
by AlexzandriaMalfoy
Summary: Barry Allen is the Flash and Adelia Snow is Flare. They work together to fight crime. Seasons 1&2
1. Prologue

Adelia Snow stepped into S.T.A.R. Labs, nerves evident on her face.

"Adelia!" Caitlin said.

"Hey." Adelia greeted her twin sister. If it hadn't been for Adelia's shorter hair and their different styles of clothing, it'd be nearly impossible to tell the two apart.

"You excited?" Caitlin asked leading Adelia down the hallway.

"Nervous." Adelia corrected. "But that too, I guess."

It was Adelia's first day at S.T.A.R. Laboratories, whereas Caitlin had been there for almost half a year now. They were working on a huge project, a particle accelerator, and Adelia was joining the team working on it.

"Good morning, Dr. Snow, Ms. Snow." Harrison Wells said, passing the two young women.

"Good morning." the two replied in unison, not stopping as they continued to walk down the halls. Caitlin led Adelia into a room that was buzzing with people, moving round to make calculations or run tests on whatever it was each individual was working on. However, Caitlin led her into a side room, where only a few people were working. One was completely ignoring everyone in the room, not even sparing Caitlin or Adelia a glance as they entered the room.

"Hey, Caitlin." the other two said, glancing up at the two brunettes entering the room and pausing their previous conversation.

"Hey, guys." Caitlin said. "This is Adelia. Adelia, this is Ronnie Raymond, structural engineer, and Cisco Ramon, mechanical engineer, he's also new here."

"I am not new." Cisco protested.

"You've been here for barely two weeks." the third person in the room finally spoke, and there was definite dislike in his tone. "I'd call that new."

"Nobody asked you." Cisco said.

"That's Hartley." Caitlin said, pointing at the third man. "You can just ignore him."

Hartley scoffed, and opened his mouth to say something, but didn't get the chance, and Caitlin began speaking again.

"You'll probably going to be working with these three a lot." Caitlin said.

"I'm sorry you have to be stuck with these idiots." Hartley said, gesturing to Cisco and Ronnie

"I'm sorry that you're stuck with that jerk." Cisco said, pointing at Hartley.

"Cisco or Ronnie, could you help Adelia get settled in. Hartley, can you please be nice, just today?" Caitlin requested, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Not possible." Cisco commented.

"You too, Cisco. Behave." Caitlin said, giving the two men a stern glance, before leaving.

Hartley waited until a minute had passed after Caitlin had left, then he stood up and wordlessly left the room.

"Okay, well, welcome to S.T.A.R. Labs." Cisco said. "It's best if you just ignore Hartley, like Caitlin said."

"Got it." Adelia stated, nodding with a small grin forming on her lips.

"That's it? You's think there'd be a loud bang." Cisco said as the particle accelerator went active.

"If there was a loud bang, we'd all be in trouble." Ronnie said.

"Take it from the guy who helped build it." Caitlin said, smiling fondly at Ronnie.

"Hey, I helped build it too." I said.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we did it." Wells said, a smile clear on his face. All the scientists gathered in the room began applauding. Ronnie and Caitlin kissed. Wells opened a bottle of champagne, the cork making a pop as it flew out. Adelia caught it mid-air when it flew in her direction.

"There's your loud bang, Cisco." she joked. Cisco lightly punched her arm as Wells lifted the glass bottle into the air. Adelia's eyebrows furrowed as the champagne began to float out of the bottle. Silence filled the room, so when the champagne fell to the ground, you could hear the splash. An alarm began blaring. "What the-"

The rest of Adelia's words were cut-off by a loud bang.

"Was that-" Cisco began, cutting himself off.

"The loud bang." Ronnie confirmed.

"There's an anomaly in the core chamber." Cisco said, discovering the issue.

"The ring's structural integrity is holding." Caitlin said.

"It started a chain reaction. The system's collapsing. We need to shut it down." Wells said, looking at Cisco.

"We can't ram down the accelerator from here. We need to do it manually." Cisco said, throwing his hands in the air.

"Go!" Wells said, pointing at the door. Cisco and Adelia turned to rush down to the Pipeline.

"I'll come with." Ronnie said, turning to follow the two.

"Ronnie, no." Caitlin objected.

"I'm the lead engineer and I know how to operate the shut-down valves." Ronnie said, turning back to look at Caitlin.

"It's not safe-"

"Cait, I have to go." Ronnie said, and gently grabbed Caitlin's face to kiss her, then he ran after Cisco and Adelia.

"Okay, you two stay here." Ronnie instructed. "We've only got a few minutes before this thing blows. And if I'm not back in time, you need to initiate lock down."

"No." both Cisco and Adelia protested.

"No way. We are not closing this door. I'm not gonna be able to open it again." Cisco said.

"Cisco, D, if you don't seal off the blast, everyone in this building will die, including Caitlin." Ronnie said. "Okay, now promise me." Cisco nodded.

"I promise." Adelia said reluctantly.

"See your watch, set it for two minutes." Ronnie said to Cisco. Cisco's watched beeped as he pressed the buttons. He pointed at Ronnie.

"You're coming back." he said. Adelia sighed as Ronnie ran into the Pipeline. She leaned against the wall, biting her lip as she and Cisco waited. Cisco kept checking the timer on his watch, until it finally began beeping. Neither moved to shut the door for a moment, before Cisco reached up, and started the lock down. Adelia stared blankly at the now sealed door.

"I need air." she whispered after a moment. Adelia pushed herself off of the wall and walked down the hallway. Caitlin ran past her in the direction of the pipeline. Adelia found the nearest doorway that led outside to the side of the building. She walked past an older man, the cool air outside causing her to shiver. Wishing she'd grabbed a jacket, Adelia rubbed her arms. Adelia sucked in the fresh air, the coolness of it piercing her lungs as she shut her eyes. Ronnie was going to die. Her sister's fiance was about to die. A weird sensation passed over Adelia. But before she could process what had just happened, a flash of light illuminated the sky as a lightning bolt hit Adelia Snow.


	2. Chapter 1

Adelia's eyes opened, and she immediately pushed herself up. Glancing around her, Adelia recognized the Cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs.

"What...?" she trailed off, noticing the needles and devices connected to her. She carefully pulled them off, knowing Caitlin would kill her for getting up, even though she had no idea what had happened. as Adelia stood up, it took her a second to catch her balance.

Seconds later, Cisco walked in, a sucker in his mouth, and Adelia assumed it was cherry, one of Cisco's favorite flavors. He was paying attention to something on his phone, while humming a song that sounded vaguely familiar, but Adelia didn't bother trying to figure out which song it was. Instead, she crossed her arms and stared at Cisco, waiting for him to notice.

When Cisco did look up, he did not expect to find Adelia staring at me. He shrieked,and dropped his phone onto the desk in front of him, drawing his arms up to his chest. The shriek caused the sucker to fall from his mouth, confirming to Adelia that it was in fact a red one.

"Damn it, Adelia." Cisco said, putting one hand over his heart, his chest moving with his heavy breathing. He looked down at the red sucker, that had smashed on contact with the floor. He pouted slightly at the loss of the flavored candy. He looked up at Adelia who had an eyebrow quirked up in amusement. "You're awake."

"Why? How long have I been out?" Adelia asked.

"Eight months." Cisco answered.

"Months?" Adelia asked. "What happened?"

"Well, for starters, the particle accelerator exploded." Cisco said. "And you were struck by lightning."

"I what?" Adelia asked, not quite believing Cisco on the last part, thinking he was messing with her.

"You were struck by lightning." Cisco repeated. "The explosion seeded a thunderstorm, and you were struck by lightning."

Adelia chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. "And I'm okay?" she asked.

"You were lucky." Cisco said. "I mean, lucky for not dying, not the being struck by lightning..." Cisco cleared his throat as he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. Adelia took a deep breath, then for the first time noticed the other figure in the Cortex, who was lying in the bed next to Adelia's.

"Who's that?" she asked curiously, noticing the young man couldn't be more older than herself.

"Barry Allen." Cisco answered. "Also struck by lightning. The same night of the particle accelerator. Like, thirty seconds after you were struck."

Adelia frowned. "How is that even possible?"

Cisco shrugged. "Don't know." he said. "How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess." Adelia said, shrugging.

"We should probably get Caitlin in here to check your vitals." Cisco said, and Adelia nodded.

"Yeah, probably." she said.

"You vitals look great." Caitlin said. "Let me know right away if anything weird happens." Caitlin said, and raised an eyebrow at her twin. "I mean it, Adelia."

Adelia grinned. "Yep." she said. Caitlin smiled, and hugged her again.

"It's good to have you back." she said, smiling, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Caitlin backed out of the room. Adelia and Cisco watched her leave.

"What happened to Ronnie?" Adelia asked once she was sure Caitlin was gone. Cisco's smile fell.

"He died in the explosion." Cisco said simply.

"Oh." Adelia said, her expression going blank as she bit her lip. She sank onto the bed. She'd been close to Ronnie. Not as close to him as Caitlin had been, but close none-the-less. As close as she was to Cisco. Both of them were like brothers to her, and Ronnie might have just been if he'd lived another few weeks.

"It's my fault. I shut that seal." Cisco said.

"No, do not blame yourself. It was his decision." Adelia said, looking up at Cisco. Cisco nodded. Silence fell for a moment as Cisco's eyes drifted behind her.

"Hey, I bet you twenty bucks he'll wake up on the next week." Cisco asked.

"You're on." Adelia said.

Two weeks had passed, and Barry Allen was still in a coma. Cisco begrudgingly handed twenty dollars over to Adelia, who gave him grin.

As of right now, Adelia was sitting in her apartment, catching up on some TV shows. She stood up and walked into the kitchen between episodes to grab a can of coke. When she reached out to open the fridge, she noticed her hand was shaking, really fast, and she couldn't stop it.

Adelia grabbed her phone and quickly dialed Caitlin's number. It rang three times before Caitlin picked up.

"Hey, Adelia." she said. "What's up?"

"Caitlin, my hand is spazzing out." Adelia said, staring at her hand. "What do I do?"

A pause followed. "Get to S.T.A.R. Labs. I'll meet you there." Caitlin said.

"Okay." Adelia breathed, before sticking her phone into her pocket.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong." Caitlin said once she'd finished examining Adelia. By the time she'd gotten to S.T.A.R. Labs, her hand had stopped shaking.

"Then what was happening?" Adelia asked. "I didn't just imagine my hand shaking. I could feel it, Cait."

"I don't know." Caitlin answered. "I'd say it was the lightning, but there is nothing wrong. You seem perfectly fine. "

Adelia frowned. "There has to be some explanation." she said. Caitlin shook her head.

"Your reflexes are fine. Better than usual, actually." Caitlin said. "If something was wrong, they'd be worse, not better. But they are."

"That definitely says something." Cisco added in. "Wait, let me test this." He picked up a pencil. "Adelia, catch." Cisco threw it poorly, so it went a foot to the right of Adelia. Adelia's arm shot out, her body moving sideways, and she caught the pencil between her fingers. Cisco's face lit up with excitement. "Dude!" he said. "Wait..." He picked up three more objects from the desk, one a pen, one a small red bouncy ball, and the last a rubber band.

"Cisco, wait-" Caitlin was ignored as Cisco shot the rubber band above Adelia's head and tossed the pen and the ball after it. Adelia watched all three objects slow down mid-air, give her enough reaction time to catch all three. She looked at Cisco and Caitlin, who hand also slowed down, then within a moment they sped up again. Cisco laughed a little.

"That is so cool!" he said.

"That was weird, it was like everything slowed down." Adelia said. "I don't know how to explain it."

"Even cooler." Cisco said.

"Perhaps we should figure out what is happening to Miss Snow before we call it cool." Dr. Wells suggested.

Hours later, they were attempting to run tests, but Adelia had no idea how cause whatever had happened again. Cisco tried throwing things again, but nothing. It got to the point where Caitlin ended up snapping at him.

"Cisco, would you stop throwing stuff, it's not helping." she said with a glare.

"Well, at least I'm try-"

Adelia almost laughed when the world slowed down when Cisco was mid-sentence. It was like when you paused a movie at the right moment and the person had the weirdest faces ever.

With a small rush of adrenaline, Adelia found herself standing behind Cisco and Caitlin.

"-ing som- where did she go?" Cisco asked, pointing where Adelia had previously been.

"I think we can call it cool now." she said, causing Cisco and Caitlin to turn around.

"How did you get over here?" Cisco asked.

"It's, like, superspeed, I think." Adelia said.

"Cool." Cisco said. "You could be, like, a superhero or something."

"No." both Caitlin and Dr. Wells said.

"Why not?" Cisco's asked. "It'd be so cool."

"It's dangerous." Caitlin answered. "Besides, we don't even know what she can do yet."

"But-"

"The answer is no, Cisco." Caitlin said sternly, then looked at Adelia. "And you don't encourage him."

Adelia put her hands up in surrender. "I didn't do anything." she said.

Adelia sped into S.T.A.R. Labs, a half-eaten granola bar in her hand. Caitlin and Cisco were talking over by Barry Allen, who had yet to come out of his coma. Poker Face was playing lightly through the room.

"What up?" she said, sinking into a chair at the desk and startling the two.

"Hey, Adelia." Caitlin said.

"Hey." Cisco said, crossing the room and stopped at the desk in front of Adelia.

"Interesting choice of song." she commented.

"It was his choice." Cisco said, jerking his thumb towards Barry Allen.

"Tell me how in the world he picked this song when he is still in his coma?" Adelia asked, raising an eyebrow at Cisco. Barry shot up in that moment, finally awake, startling Cisco.

"Oh, my God!" Cisco said, spinning on his heels to look at Barry.

"Where am I?" Barry asked.

"He's up." Caitlin said, stating the obvious.

"Dr. Wells, get down to the Cortex, like, right now." Cisco said through the intercom. Caitlin was already next to Barry, shining a light into his eyes.

"Caitlin, let him breathe." Adelia said. Barry pushed himself up, sort of pushing Caitlin to the side.

"Hey, hey, whoa, whoa, relax." Cisco said, walking back over to where Barry and Caitlin were. "Everything's okay, man. You're at S.T.A.R. Labs."

"S.T.A.R. Labs?" Barry repeated, as Caitlin continued to check him over. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cisco Ramon. She's Caitlin- Dr. Snow." Cisco said, gesturing to Caitlin, then turning and pointing to Adelia, who had kicked her feet up onto the desk. "That's Adelia." It took him a moment to notice her feet on the desk. Once he did notice, he glared at her. "Hey, get your feet off the desk."

"Like you've never put your feet on here before." Adelia retorted, but put her feet back on the floor all the same.

"I need you to urinate in this." Caitlin said, holding up a plastic container. Cisco plucked it from her hand.

"Not this second." he said. Barry pushed between Caitlin and Cisco, stepping a few feet from them.

"What is- what is happening?" he asked. "What is going on?"

"You were struck by lightning, dude." Cisco said. Barry's eyes flickered from Caitlin, to Cisco, then finally to Adelia.

"What?" he breathed, and turned around to see a monitor that was actively acting as a mirror in that moment. Barry slowly asked, "Lightning gave me abs?"

"Your muscles should be atrophied, but instead they're in a chronic and unexplained state of cellular regeneration." Caitlin said. Cisco grabbed Barry's shoulders and pulled him backwards.

"Come here. Have a seat." he said, and pushed Barry down into a chair. "You were in a coma." Barry turned his head to look at Cisco.

"For how long?" he asked.

"Nine months." Wells answered, appearing in the doorway. Barry turned to look at him, a starstruck look appearing on his face. "Welcome back Mr. Allen. We have a lot to discuss."

Adelia waited until a few moments after Barry and Wells had disappeared, before she spoke. "Great job." she said sarcastically. "You nearly suffocated him."

"We did not-" Cisco said, stopping as Adelia raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that. We did not suffocate him."

"I said nearly for a reason." Adelia said, before she was gone, giving Cisco no chance to reply.

"She needs to stop doing that." Cisco complained.

When Adelia came back to S.T.A.R. Labs, she had a coffee in hand. Cisco had shot her a text a half hour previously, mentioning that Barry had gotten powers too, and she had to assume they were the same as hers when Cisco hadn't elaborated. She'd stopped at Jitters first, mainly because she had been on her way there anyways, then headed to S.T.A.R. Labs.

Adelia leaned against the wall and sipped her coffee. Barry was talking about something, and having missed the beginning of the conversation, she wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like he was giving them a brief of his life story.

When Barry noticed Adelia he was confused, pretty sure she came out of nowhere.

"When did you get here?" Adelia shrugged.

"A few minutes ago." she answered. Barry frowned, pretty sure he would have noticed her walk in. Cisco seemed to sense his confusion.

"She does that. On purpose too." he said, glaring at Adelia. She smirked. "She's got super speed too."

"Oh, cool." Barry said.

"Yeah. Nobody else has powers around here, that we know of yet." Adelia said.

"So it's just us?" Barry questioned. Adelia shrugged.

"Could be, unless Cisco is hiding superpowers?" she said, pointing at Cisco.

"Nope." he said.

"Guess it's just us then." Adelia said, and if suddenly remembering her coffee, she chugged the rest, which she was disappointed to find wasn't very much. A small pout formed on Adelia's lips as she glared at the empty cup. "I'll be back."

Barry glanced at Cisco, a baffled look on his face after Adelia had disappeared.

"Might as well get used to that." Cisco said, pointing at the door that Adelia had left from. "She loves her coffee. Buy her coffee, and she'll love you for all eternity." Cisco paused. "Maybe that's why she hated Hartley so much."

"Who's Hartley?" Barry questioned.

"Nobody." Cisco answered. "Absolutely nobody."


	3. Chapter 2

"What really happened that night?" Barry asked as he walked into the Cortex.

"The accelerator went active. We all felt like heroes, and then...it all went wrong." Wells answered. He played a simulation of the particle accelerator exploding on one of the many screens lining the wall. "The dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Antimatter, dark energy, x-elements-"

"But those are all theoretical." Barry protested.

"And how theoretical are you?" Wells replied snarkily, which shut Barry up. "We mapped out the dispersion throughout and around Central City. Though we have no way of knowing what or who was exposed, we've been searching for other meta-humans like yourself."

"Meta-humans?" Barry questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"That's what we're calling them." Caitlin said.

"I saw one today." Barry said. Adelia frowned. "He's a bank robber, and he can control the weather."

"This just keeps getting cooler." Cisco said. Adelia elbowed lightly him in the stomach.

"This is not cool!" Barry said loudly. "A man died, alright? Mardon must have gotten his powers the same way Adelia and I did. From the storm cloud. He's still out there. We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

Barry turned to walk out. "Barry." Wells said, and Barry turned to look at him. "That's a job for the police."

"I work for the police." Barry said.

"As a forensics assistant." Wells said.

"You're responsible for this. For him." Barry said.

"What's important is you!" Wells said a little louder than necessary. "Not me. I lost everything. I lost my company. I lost my reputation. I lost my freedom. And then you broke your arm, and it healed in three hours."

"Wait, what?" Adelia blurted, but she was ignored as Wells continued to speak.

"Inside of your body could be a map to a whole new world- genetic therapies, vaccines, medicines, treasures buried deep within your cells and we cannot risk losing everything because you want to go out and play hero. You're not a hero. You are just a young man who was struck by lightning."

Barry looked at the three sitting behind the desk, before turning and leaving. A silence followed his departure.

"You know, he's got a point." Adelia said, staring at Wells. "This is our fault. The least we could do is clean up the mess we created."

With that, Adelia stood up from her seat and walked out of the Cortex.

"I've been going over unsolved cases from the past nine months, and there's been a sharp increase in unexplained deaths and missing people." Barry said. "Your meta-humans have been busy. Now, I'm not blaming you, I know you didn't mean for any of this to happen. I know you all lost something. But I need your help to catch Mardon and anyone else out there like him. But I can't do it without you."

"I'm in." Adelia said without hesitation. She glanced at Cisco and Caitlin, waiting for one of them to say something.

"If we're gonna do this, I have something that might help." Cisco said, and led the three into his lab. "Something I've been playing with." He revealed a red suit with a red face mask that went over the head. "Designed to replace the turnouts firefighters traditionally wear. I thought if S.T.A.R. Labs could do something nice for the community, maybe people wouldn't be so angry at Dr. Wells anymore."

"But how is it going to help me?" Barry asked.

"I've been working on something similar for Adelia for when we're testing out her powers instead of what she's been using." Cisco said.

"You didn't think of telling me this?" Adelia asked, narrowing her eyes at Cisco, but he paid no attention to her.

"It's made of reinforced tri-polymer." Cisco said. "It's heat and abrasive resistant, so it should withstand your moving at high-velocity speeds. And the aerodynamic design should help you maintain control. Plus, it has built in sensors, so we can track your vitals and stay in contact with you from here."

"Thanks." Barry said. "Now how do we find Mardon?"

Caitlin walked in, looking at a tablet in her hands. "I retasked S.T.A.R. Labs's satellite to track meteorological abnormalities over Central City." she said. Adelia, Barry, and Cisco moved over next to her. "We just got a ping. Atmospheric pressure just dropped 20 millibars in a matter of seconds. I've tracked it to a farm just west of the city."

"Let's go." Adelia said. Barry nodded.

The suit Cisco had made for Adelia was made of the same red material as the one he had shown them before. It had an eye mask that matched it, effectively concealing her identity. On her chest was a lightning bolt emblem, that had no real purpose to it.

Barry caught a flying piece of debris as they reached the farm that was heading towards a man, who Adelia recognized as Barry's foster father, Joe, who'd come to see him regularly when he was in his coma. A tornado had formed, and Adelia stared at it, shocked that a meta had created that.

"Barry, Adelia." Cisco said into the comms system. "This thing's getting closer. Wind speeds are 200 miles per hour and increasing. Guys, can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Adelia answered.

"Loud and clear." Barry said.

"If it keeps up, this could become an F-5 tornado." Cisco said.

"But it's headed towards the city." Barry said. "How do we stop it? Guys?"

Silence followed. "Cisco? Caitlin?" Adelia asked.

"What if we unravel it?" Barry yelled over the winds.

"How the hell are you going to do that?" Caitlin asked.

"We'll run around it in the opposite direction, cut off its legs." Barry answered.

"If we run fast enough, it should work." Adelia said. Barry nodded.

"Your bodies may not be able to handle those speeds. You could die." Caitlin said. Barry looked at Adelia, who nodded.

"We have to try." Barry said, and glanced at his very confused foster father.

"Be careful." Caitlin stated, then Barry and Adelia took off running, going straight towards the tornado, speeding around it in circles. After a few seconds, both speedsters were blown off their feet by the strong winds, landing on the ground yards away from each other.

"It's too strong!" Barry yelled over the wind as they scrambled to their feet.

"You can do this. Both of you." Wells voice came through the comms. "You were right. I am responsible for all of this. So many people have been hurt because of me. And when I looked at you, Barry, all I saw was another potential victim of my hubris. And yes, I created this madness, but you can stop it, together. You can do this. Now run."

Barry and Adelia glanced at each other for half a second before they took off, running in circles around the tornado, until it eventually imploded in a huge cloud of dust. Adelia was blown off of her feet, one again hitting the ground. She reached up and pulled her mask from her face, and it dangled around her neck.

"Barry? Adelia?" Caitlin said, sounding unsure. Adelia didn't get a chance to respond as Barry pulled her to her feet.

"Hey." Mardon said, causing both speedsters to look at him. Mardon held up a gun, pointing it at Barry. "I didn't think there was anyone else like me."

"We're not like you." Barry said. "You're a murderer. "

Mardon got ready to pull the trigger, but before he could, gunshots echoed through the air. Bullets effectively hit Mardon in the chest, and he fell over on the ground. Barry and Adelia turned to look at Joe West, who'd shot Mardon. Joe began running towards them.

"Guys?" Caitlin asked, sounding worried.

"It's over." Barry said simply. "We're okay."

Adelia stood with Cisco as he put a lightning bolt emblem onto Barry's suit, one similar to her own.

"Why is it shaped light a lightning bolt?" Caitlin asked.

"So it's not boring." Cisco said with a no duh tone.

"Seriously, Caitlin. You need to keep up." Adelia said. Caitlin stared at her twin blankly. Neither said anything, just had a staring contest, their facial expressions matching. Cisco looked between the two twins, waiting for one of the two to move.

"Guys?" Cisco said. Neither reacted. "Guys, stop that. You know that creeps me out." Neither even blinked. "Caitlin. Adelia. Stop it."

The twins looked at him. "Stop what?" they asked in unison.

"S- that! Stop doing that!" Cisco said.

"No idea what you're talking about." Adelia said, then looked at Caitlin and shrugged.

"Are you okay, Cisco? You aren't imagining things, are you?" Caitlin asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, you do!" Cisco cried. "You know what you were doing!"

"Nope." Adelia answered.

"You guys are jerks." Cisco pouted.


	4. Chapter 3

"Barry? Barry." Cisco said.

"What? Did I miss it?"

"You overshot by about six blocks."

"My bad."

"Pay attention." Adelia said as she sped into the burning building.

"You there yet?"

"Yeah." Barry said, stopping next to Adelia. The air was extremely hot and hard to breathe. The smoke didn't help. "Cisco! There's fire everywhere! Cisco, are you still there?"

"Earth to Cisco!" Adelia said. "You know what? Forget him. Search the building for people."

After the building was empty, the speedsters stopped in an alleyway, and Barry had take his mask off. "Everybody's out. What else you got for us, Cisco?"

"Barry, Adelia, it's Caitlin." Caitlin's voice came through the comms. Adelia watched the grin slide off of Barry's face.

"Hey, Caitlin." he said, his voice going higher. "How's your day?" Adelia slapped his shoulder. "Ouch!"

"Get back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Now." Caitlin said.

"Have you both lost your minds?" Caitlin asked very angrily. "Who do you think you are?"

"Well, I'm the eyes and ears and they're the feet." Cisco said, following Caitlin as she marched across the Cortex.

"This isn't funny." Caitlin said. "You both could have gotten yourselves killed. You can't be running around the city like some supersonic firemen."

"Why not?" Barry asked. "This is what we talked about: using our speed to do good."

"We talked about you helping us contain other people who might have been affected by the particle accelerator explosion." Caitlin said. "Meta-humans. And aside from Clyde Mardon, we haven't found any." Then she looked at Adelia. "And I thought we said no to this."

"No, you said no." Adelia said. "We can't just sit around and wait for a meta-human to show up. Caitlin, we can help people."

"Will you please say something?" Caitlin said, looking past Barry to look at Wells.

"I think what Caitlin is saying, in her own spectacularly angry way, is that we are just beginning to understand what your body is capable of." Dr. Wells said, moving his wheelchair closer to them. "Not to sound like a broken record, I do caution restraint."

"Dr. Wells, I doubt restraint is how you got to be the man you are today." Barry said.

"In a wheelchair and a pariah." Wells said. "Lack of restraint is what made me these things. Know your limits."

Caitlin moved to look at Barry. "Don't expect me to patch you up every time you break something." she said, and looked at Adelia. "And you either."

"Got it." Adelia said. "And on that note, I'm going to get some coffee."

"Seriously?" Caitlin asked as Adelia disappeared.

"How could you not tell us you're experiencing dizzy spells?" Caitlin scolded Barry. "We're your doctors! God knows what's going on inside of your body. Your cells are in a constant state of flux. You could have been experiencing cardiopulmonary failure or a transient ischemic attack."

Barry glanced at Wells, his eyebrows were furrowed together in confusion.

"Mini stroke." Wells said. "Probably not."

"You, of all people, should know that in science, we share." Caitlin said. "We do not keep secrets." Caitlin turned to leave, and she looked at Adelia. "You haven't been hiding anything, have you?"

"No." Adelia answered, and Caitlin walked out of the room.

"Wow. I haven't seen anyone make her that angry since Ronnie." Cisco said, handing off a tablet to Dr. Wells and following Caitlin.

"Ronnie was Caitlin's fiance?" Barry asked. "The one that died the night of the particle accelerator explosion?"

"Yeah." Wells answered. "He is...missed. Now, let's figure out why this is happening to you."

"You sure about this, Cisco?" Barry asked.

"Most home treadmills have a maximum speed of about 12 miles per hour." Cisco said. "This one has been Ciscoed. Trust me, it can handle your speed. Adelia uses it all the time."

"Okay." Barry said, and began walking on the treadmill, slowly building up speed until he was nothing more than a blur in front of them. Adelia watched the screens set up that were monitoring Barry's vitals.

"Heart rate, blood pressure, nerve conduction all normal." Caitlin said.

"For Barry." Wells said.

"Brainwave function within standard limits." Caitlin said.

"Caitlin, look at the glucose levels." Dr. Wells said. Adelia glanced at the screen.

"Oh, my God. Of course." Caitlin said.

"Right?" Wells said.

"It was so obvious." Caitlin said.

"Glucose levels." Wells said, then raised his voice. "Barry, we think we know why you keep-" Wells was cut off as Barry passed out, and flew back into the wall of cardboard boxes that Cisco had created for this situation. Foam peanuts exploded into the air, falling like snowflakes. "-passing out."

Barry groaned as Caitlin helped him sit up. "I passed out again?" he asked.

"Total metabolic failure brought on by acute hypoglycemia." Caitlin said.

"I'm not eating enough." Barry stated. "So an IV bag and I'm good to go?"

Cisco laughed shortly and turned Barry to show him a rack of IV bags.

"Try forty." Dr. Wells said. "Guess you were thirsty."

"How come Adelia hasn't passed out?" Barry asked.

"Well, now that I think of it, she's been eating more lately." Cisco said. "Last time we went to Big Belly Burger, she had, like, seven triple-triples and a large fries."

"We're gonna need to fashion you a new diet based on your metabolic changes." Caitlin said.

"I've done a few calculations." Cisco said. "You need an amount equal to roughly 850 tacos. Unless we're talking cheese and guac, which is like a whole other set of equations."

"For Mexican, I recommend Tito's."

Adelia turned around to look at Joe West, who was standing in the doorway.

"On Bruckner Avenue?" he said. "Best burrito in the city."

"Detective West." Dr. Wells said. "What brings you to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

Joe looked directly at Barry, and pointed at him. "When I couldn't find you at your lab, I started doing a little research." he said. "Turns out there's been reports of a couple of red streaks around the city, stopping muggers, rescuing people from burning buildings."

"You didn't tell him we were working together?" Wells asked. Barry shook his head.

"Joe, I can explain." he said.

"You already have a job in law enforcement, Barry." Joe said. "I suggest you get back to it."

Caitlin hummed in agreement, causing Joe to look at her. "Don't look at me." Caitlin said. "I'm on your side."

"Detective." Wells said. "We all want what's best for Barry."

"If you wanted what was best for Barry, you'd try to talk him out of this lunacy instead of encouraging him going out there, risking his life." Joe said.

"You saw a man control the weather." Barry said angrily. "What are the police going to do against someone like that? Since the accelerator exploded we suspect there may be more like him."

"And you're gonna do what?" Joe asked, crossing his arms. "Catch them? Are you insane? You think because you can run real fast that you're invincible? You're not. You're just a kid. My kid."

"I'm not your kid, Joe." Barry said, raising his voice. "And you're not my father. My father's sitting in Iron Heights. Wrongfully convicted. You were wrong about him. And you're wrong about this. Now, I may not be able to help him, but if I can save someone from a burning building, or stopped some armed thieves, I'm gonna do it. And you can't stop me. So don't try."

"You think you're so smart. All of you." Joe said. "But you don't know what you don't know." Then he pointed at Dr. Wells. "And I hope that you're clever enough to figure it out before someone gets killed."

Barry inhaled sharply and jerked away from Caitlin as she applied an antiseptic to his wounds.

"Sorry." she said. "The abrasions are already rapidly healing."

"Yeah, I got my ass handed to me." Barry stated.

"You got blood on my suit." Cisco complained. Barry turned to look at him.

"I think some of it belongs to him." he said. "Another not so friendly meta-human."

Dr. Wells pulled up a picture of the meta on one of the screens. "Danton Black." he said. "He's a bio-geneticist, specialized in therapeutic cloning. Growing new organs to replace failing ones."

"Apparently Stagg stole his research and then fired him." Caitlin said.

"No wonder he wants to kill him." Adelia said from her spot at the desk, causing the others to look at her. "I'm not saying that makes it right, I'm just saying..."

"I saw Black create duplicates from his own body." Barry said and stood up.

"That's pretty ironic." Cisco said. "The guy specialized in cloning and now he can make xeroxes of himself."

"If he was experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave released by the particle accelerator explosion-"

Cisco cut off Dr. Wells by saying, "Meet Captain Clone." When everyone looked at him, he continued to speak. "Don't worry. I'll come up with something cooler."

"Good, 'cause that is a terrible name." Adelia said. Barry shook his head slightly and started walking towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Caitlin asked curiously. Barry stopped and turned around.

"Joe was right." he said. "I'm in way over my head. Yeah, I'm fast, but I am no warrior. Man, I can barely fight one meta-human, let alone six."

Barry turned to leave, and Dr. Wells spoke up. "Barry, I understand." he said. "Today was a setback. But any grand enterprise has them. And we can never learn to fly without crashing a few times."

"This wasn't a grand enterprise, Dr. Wells." Barry said. "This was a mistake."

Without another word, Barry turned and walked out. Nothing was said for a moment before Adelia broke the silence.

"I'm going to Jitters, I need coffee." Adelia stated, standing up. "I haven't had any yet today."

"Is that why you seem more moody than usual?" Cisco asked. Adelia placed her palms down on the desk, leaning on it for support as she glared at her friend.

"You know, I was going to be nice and ask if you wanted me to get you something, but now I'm not going to." she said, ignoring the instant offended look that came across Cisco's face. "Caitlin, Dr. Wells, do either of you want something?"

"No thank you, Adelia." Dr. Wells said, and Caitlin just shook her head.

"Adelia, you know I was joking." Cisco said as Adelia grabbed her jacket. "Just get me my usual."

Without a response, Adelia sped out of the room.


	5. Chapter 4

When Adelia returned back to S.T.A.R. Labs, she had to do a double take when she saw what looked like half of a human, rapidly creating the other half.

"Hey, Adelia." Caitlin said. After a moment, Adelia glanced down at her coffee.

"Either there's something weird in this coffee, or I'm seeing the weirdest thing I'll probably ever see." she said. Caitlin looked up to where the half-human was.

"Oh, I'm growing one of Black's clones." she stated simply.

"How the hell did you do that?" Adelia asked.

"With some of his blood off of Barry's suit." Caitlin answered. "I was trying to learn how he replicates himself."

"I don't know if this is cool or straight up weird..." Adelia said, slightly shaking her head.

"Straight up weird." Cisco answered, walking in the room a tablet in hand. Adelia looked at the Danton copy that was growing, and help out one of the paper cups in hand out for Cisco. "Ooh, thank you."

Adelia rolled her eyes, a small grin on her face as she sipped her own coffee. "But at the same time it's kinda cool, too." she said. Cisco shrugged.

"Whatever." he said.

"Hey, Adelia, can you hand me my phone? I'm going to call Barry." Caitlin said. Adelia grabbed the phone off of the desk, her eyes not leaving the replicating clone as she held out the device to her sister. It was only a few seconds before the replication had finished, and Caitlin dialed Barry's number.

Adelia couldn't make out Barry's words, but she recognized his voice on the other end.

"Yeah, I know." Caitlin said. "But you need to get to S.T.A.R. Labs right now."

Less than ten seconds later, Barry sped into the cortex, stopping right in front of the replica. Caitlin brushed her hair out of her face.

'"Barry, it's okay." she said.

"It is not okay!" Barry said. "Black is here and he's...just standing there. That's not him, is it?"

Barry looked over at Cisco, Caitlin, and Adelia. Cisco and Caitlin shook their heads as Dr. Wells came up behind them.

"It's one of his replicates." he said.

"How did you get it?" Barry asked, glancing back at Black.

"I grew him." Caitlin stated proudly, then walked over to the computer. She pulled up a simulation of cells multiplying rapidly. "I isolated a sample of Black's blood from your suit to see if I could trigger the in vitro cultivation process and learn how Black multiplies. So I exposed the target cells to a protein gel, and they began replicating into that."

Barry poked Black, then waved his hand in front of his face. "Why isn't he...it doing anything?" he asked.

"We did a brain scan." Dr. Wells answered. "Involuntary motor functions are active, little else."

"We think it's acting as a receiver." Cisco said.

"The clones are an empty shell without Black." Caitlin said. "Shut down the real Black, and you might shut them all down."

"But how do we know which one's the real Danton Black?" Barry asked.

"That occurred to me given your own passing out." Caitlin answered. "Black has limits, just like you. Controlling all of those clones must require a tremendous amount of physical strength. So, look for the one showing signs of weakness or fatigue. He's the prime."

"Just a theory..." Wells said. "But one you both might want to put to the test."

"Plus, I whipped up these high calorie protein bars for you to keep your metabolism up." Cisco said, one of said bars in his hand.

Then Caitlin screamed as the clone began to move. Gunshots rang through the room, and Adelia's eyes snapped to the doorway where Joe stood with a gun in hand.

"Anymore of them?" he asked.

"Nope." Caitlin answered.

"Why did it start moving?" Barry asked, looking at Dr. Wells.

"The prime." Wells answered. "My guess is the prime is on the move. This one heard the summons to battle."

"And I know where he was summoned to." Joe said, putting his gun away. "Stagg Industries."

Joe looked at Barry, who shook his head. "You should call it in." he said. Joe shook his head.

"Police can't fight this." he said. "What Black's become, like Mardon...beyond me. Maybe way beyond them, too. Only person it's not beyond is you. You gotta do this. I get it. So, for once in your life, do what I tell you to do. Go stop him."

"Oh, boy." Adelia muttered as she and Barry stood in Stagg industries. Black's clones were all over the place, each of them armed with a gun. She and Barry began to walk around, looking for the real Black.

"I know Stagg stole your research, but that doesn't give you the right to murder." Barry said. Adelia heard a gun shot, and instinctively turned to the sound. Barry dodged the bullet, then sped forward, knocking down a bunch of the clones.

"You think this was about my job?" Black asked as Adelia took out a few of the clones. "It was about Elizabeth."

"She was my wife." another clone said. "She had a degenerative coronary disease. She'd been on the transplant list for years, but...time was running out. So if I couldn't get her a new heart..."

Adelia heard a gunshot, and quickly dodged the bullet. "You were going to grow her one." Barry said.

"I was so close, until Stagg stole my research." Black said. "So he could reap the glory. And I got to bury my best friend. Now...I'm alone."

By this point, there was only one Black left, the real one, until her began to multiply into more clones. Adelia watched from the balcony as the clones began to swarm Barry, and ran down, taking out a bunch of them. Once Barry got the chance to get out of the group, the two of them went up to the next floor.

"Remember, guys, find the prime." Caitlin said.

"You think we aren't trying?" Adelia breathed.

"There's too many of them." Barry added.

"Barry, Adelia, you need to isolate the prime." Wells said.

"It's impossible." Barry said. Adelia sighed, Barry was having too many doubts.

"Nothing's impossible, Barry." Joe said. "You taught me that. You can do this."

The now larger group of Blacks came running up the stairs. Adelia glanced at Barry, who sped into the crowd, and Adelia followed suit, taking down as many of the clones as she could, until they all dropped around her. Adelia looked around, locating Barry on the balcony right away. She grinned in relief.

"Guys." Caitlin said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Adelia breathed, and took a moment to look at all the clones.

"We're okay." Barry said. "It's done."

Not moments later, Adelia heard the breaking of glass, and her head shot up, not seeing Barry on the balcony anymore.

"Barry?" she said, but received no response. She sped up to the next floor, where broken glass littered the floor. Barry turned to look at her.

"He's gone." was all he said.

The next day at S.T.A.R. Labs, they watched the news coverage on the attack in the Cortex.

"I tried to save him." Barry stated.

"Doesn't sound like he wanted to be saved." Dr. Wells said. "Some people, when they break, they can't be put together again."

"Some people heal even stronger." Barry said.

"I hope so." Wells replied.

"Well, at least Multiplex won't be able to hurt anybody else." Cisco said, giving Adelia a pointed look as he said the nickname. "Told you I'd come up with a cool name."

Adelia shook her head, but grinned anyways. "You are such a dork." she said.


	6. Chapter 5

"Fascinating." Dr. Wells said. "A meta-human that can manipulate poison gas."

"Is it just poisonous gas, or can he control all aerated substances?" Cisco asked.

"And how is he able to formulate the connection?" Caitlin asked. "Is it physiological or psychological?"

"This individual can create a mental nexus using gaseous substances." Wells said.

"You mean connect with gases on a molecular level?" Cisco asked.

"Yes." Wells said.

"Cool." Adelia said, while Barry and Joe watched the four around the computers.

"They get really excited about this stuff." Barry said to Joe.

"The only thing I'm excited about is putting criminals behind bars." Joe said. "Except Iron Heights isn't exactly equipped to handle meta-humans."

"Then I guess it's fortunate that the ones you've encountered so far are no longer with us." Dr. Wells said.

"Well, unless we're planning on executing every super criminal we stop, you geniuses are gonna have to come up with someplace else to hold them." Joe said.

"A meta-human prison. Sweet." Cisco said.

"Until we figure a way to remove their powers." Wells said.

"There is one place here that might hold them." Cisco said. Caitlin, Adelia, and Wells all looked at him.

"You can't be serious." Caitlin said. "I mean, we haven't been down there since...it's cordoned off."

"Cisco's right." Wells said. "It could be modified to act as a makeshift prison."

"What could?" Barry asked.

"The Particle Accelerator." Wells answered. "Let's head down to the accelerator ring."

Adelia and Cisco left, heading down to the ring.

"Wow, I haven't been down here in a long time." Adelia said.

"Yeah." Cisco said, and it wasn't too long before Dr. Wells joined the two. He opened the blast door as he began to speak.

"The copper in the tube is arranged to form cavities, and we can use those cavities as containment cells." he said. "Of course, we'll have to design them to counteract meta-human abilities, but it might just work. First we have to decouple the main injection system on the gantry level. I'll be right back."

"Why don't I do that?" Cisco offered.

"I need the exercise." Wells said with a wink, then wheeled out, leaving the two alone. Adelia sighed as a wave of nostalgia hit her.

Adelia groaned loudly in frustration, when once again the dubnium capacitor wasn't doing what they needed it to. "I'm this close to throwing this damn thing across the room." she said.

"Yeah, well, don't ." Hartley said.

"You know what-"

"Both of you, be quiet." Caitlin said, giving both her twin and Hartley stern looks. Adelia shot a glare at Hartley.

"Lets try it again." Ronnie said.

"Cisco, Adelia, we're ready. to go." Dr. Wells said, pulling Adelia out of the memory. "It must be hard, coming back down here. A lot happened that night. If you feel the need to talk-"

"I was just thinking, we need to nail those voltage calculations." Cisco said. "One fault, and the helium blowback could damage the mountings."

"Smart." Dr. Wells said. Cisco's phone went off and he pulled it out.

"It's Caitlin. She said there's another attack, at the mall. Barry's down there." he said.

"Okay." Adelia said. "I'm-"

"Don't." Dr. Wells said. "Until we know more about this meta, we should only risk sending one of you out there at once. If Barry needs help, then you can go."

Adelia nodded, then they headed back up to the Cortex to be on the comms.

"I patched into the mall's security system." Cisco said. "According to witnesses, the gas attack was in the main elevator in the north wing."

"Which one is the north wing?" Barry asked.

"The one with the Big Belly Burger." Dr. Wells answered, gaining looks from both Cisco and Adelia. "I eat."

Adelia watched on the screens as Barry's vitals dropped. "Barry?" she said.

"Barry, can you hear us?" Wells asked.

"His vitals are weak, but he's alive. I'm sure he's fine." Cisco said.

"I'm going to-" Adelia was cut off as Barry ran in, all but slamming into the desk. He was gasping for air.

"I can't breathe. I can't breathe." he gasped.

"He needs oxygen, get the crash cart!" Dr. Wells ordered Cisco, who got up.

"I'll go get Caitlin." Adelia said, then sped out. Moments later, she was back with a surprised Caitlin.

"A little warning next time." she said, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Sorry." Adelia said, not sounding all that apologetic. "Uh, Barry needs your help."

"He-" Caitlin walked into the med bay, followed by Adelia. "Barry!"

"Cut me open!" he said. "The poison's still in me."

"He brought us a sample." Dr. Wells said. "Caitlin, we need to do a pulmonary biopsy, extract an active portion of that gas."

"I can't give you any anesthetic, your metabolism will burn right through it." Caitlin said.

"I heal quick, remember?" Barry said.

"Do it." Wells said.

"Cisco, give me the syringe." Caitlin instructed. "This is gonna hurt a lot."

"It's a small needle." Cisco lied as he handed it to Caitlin. "You probably won't even feel it."

"You're definitely going feel it." Caitlin contradicted, before pushing the syringe into his chest. Barry gasped loudly, and Caitlin pulled out a sample. "Okay, I've got it."

It was a few hours before Barry woke up.

"The streak lives." Cisco said.

"You'd be dead if your lung cells didn't regenerate so quickly." Caitlin said.

"Ugh. My chest feels like that one time I tried a cigarette." Barry said. Noting the look Caitlin gave him, he said, "Yeah, teen me lived for danger."

"This isn't funny." Caitlin said. "You could've-"

"I didn't." Barry cut her off.

"Now that we have a sample, we'll get to work analyzing it, figure out the make-up of the poison, maybe get a clue as to his human identity." Dr. Wells said.

"Or at least a way to stop him from turning into a mist." Cisco said, then he grinned. "The Mist. Okay, that's his name. End of discussion."

"I have to get to the station." Barry said as he stood up.

"You should be resting." Dr. Wells said, not looking up from the computer.

"I have to talk to Joe." Barry said, and walked out.

"Why don't we start analyzing the sample?" Adelia suggested.

"Is that-"

"Hydrogen cyanide." Cisco said, cutting off Adelia.

"Huh. Wouldn't have been my first guess." she said.

"Then what would your first guess be?" Cisco asked. Adelia shrugged.

"Phosgene or Hydrogen Chloride, not really sure." she said.

"Hold on, there's something else." Dr. Wells said. Adelia turned her focus back to the chemical compound.

"A sedative." she said.

"An interesting combination." Dr. Wells said.

"Hey, check this out." Cisco said when Barry and Caitlin walked in. "It's a 3-D molecular model of the gas we retrieved from your lungs."

"We have identified the toxin." Dr. Wells said.

"Hydrogen cyanide?" Barry asked.

"What's interesting is what's mixed in with the toxin- a sedative." Dr. Wells replied.

"Of course." Barry said, running a hand through his hair. "The night of the explosion, find out if anyone was executed."

"Why?" Wells asked as Caitlin walked over to the computer.

"That sedative is given to criminals on death row before they go to the gas chamber and breathe in hydrogen cyanide." Barry answered.

"That's right." Wells said.

"There was someone executed." Caitlin said, and pulled his file onto the screens. "Kyle Nimbus."

"That's him." Barry said.

"He was a hit man for the Darbinyan crime family." Caitlin said, reading the information from the screen. "They turned on him and testified. Judge Theresa Howard was the judge at his trial. She sentenced him to death."

"He must have been affected by the explosion while he was being gassed." Wells said.

"Records indicate the execution was completed." Cisco said.

"That's why there wasn't a match." Barry said. "The DNA database only has records of the living."

"Right." Dr. Wells said.

"He said there was one more person on his list." Barry said, then turned to Caitlin and walked over to stand in front of the desk. "Check the arrest record. Who caught him? That could be his next attack."

"Barry, the lead detective is Joe." Caitlin said.

Over the next twenty minutes, Barry attempted to contact Joe, while Adelia helped Caitlin with an antidote for the poison.

"I hope you won't need it." Caitlin said, as Adelia took the antidote. Adelia and Caitlin walked back into the Cortex.

"Any luck?" Adelia asked Barry.

"He's at Iron Heights, seeing my dad." Barry said.

"Okay, let's go." Adelia said. "I've got an antidote for the poison, Caitlin and I made it."

"Okay." Barry said.

"Be careful." Caitlin instructed, barely half a second before both speedsters were gone, along with their suits.

"Guys, I pulled up the specs on Iron Heights prison." Cisco said. "It's maximum security, but I think I can talk you through breaking in there."

"Don't bother." Barry said. "I've been figuring out how to break into that place since I was eleven."

By the time they reached Iron Heights and got inside, Nimbus had already gotten to Joe, who was laying on the ground seizing. Adelia quickly handed Barry the antidote in her hand. He injected it into Joe's neck, and he stopped seizing almost immediately. Adelia glanced at the man behind the glass, who she figured had to be Barry's dad. She looked back down to where Barry was with Joe, and Barry glanced at her.

Moments later, the only thing left of the two was a gust of wind as they went after Nimbus.

Outside, the came to a stop in front of Nimbus.

"So, you've come to finish what the gas chamber couldn't?" he asked.

"You're going somewhere you can't hurt anyone ever again." Barry said in a hard tone.

"Wrong." Nimbus said, then he turned into a cloud of green gas.

"You two need to stay away from him." Caitlin said. "Do not breathe him in."

"I'm not sure how that helps us, guys." Barry said after they were forced to speed backwards to avoid the wall of gas that was Nimbus. Nimbus turned back into his human form again. Barry instantly sped forward, then ran right through Nimbus as he turned into a gas.

"You can't fight him." Caitlin said. "Just, keep him coming at you. That should sap his strength."

"Gas is the least stable form of matter." Dr. Wells said. "This meta-human will not be able to stay in his mist form for long. His particles will need to reform."

Adelia took a deep breath as Nimbus turned into his gas form once again, and ran, Barry next to her. They stopped running after a while, and Nimbus turned to human form, clearly exhausted. Barry took the opportunity to knock him out.

"Barry. Adelia." Wells said.

"We win." Barry stated.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Nimbus was in one of the newly made meta-human containment cells. And one thing was for sure, he was not happy about it.

"Will it hold?" Caitlin asked as he pounded on the glass.

"The barrier is powered by an 8.3 Tesla superconducting electromagnet, which is about 100,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field." Cisco said.

"In other words, yes." Dr. Wells said. "Hmm. He's mad. Well, good night."

Wells shut the blast door, then Caitlin asked, "So, we're just supposed to get used to working above a makeshift prison housing evil people with superpowers?"

"You'd be surprised what you can get used to, Caitlin." Dr. Wells responded, then turned and wheeled out of the room.


	7. Chapter 6

Adelia sat at the desk, watching in amusement as Barry sped between a game of ping pong with Cisco, Operation with Caitlin, Chess with Dr. wells, and Uno with herself. They were testing Barry's multi-tasking abilities, a training activity Adelia had done many times. Barry stopped at the desk, looked at his cards, and dropped a red two on top of the pile.

"Uno." he said, and put the card back on the desk, before going back to his other games.

"This isn't even remotely anatomically correct." Caitlin complained, as Adelia dropped a card onto the pile.

"That's not the point, Dr. Snow." Barry said, and quickly took his turn then returned to ping pong.

"Then what is the point?" she asked.

"To have fun." Barry answered.

"And to continue your ongoing training by testing the speed of your mind by pushing your ability to multitask." Dr. Wells said, and Barry sped over to take his turn.

Barry went back to playing ping pong for a few seconds, before speeding over to Adelia, sighing at the draw four card that Adelia had placed.

"How many of those do you have?" he asked, then was gone again.

"None." she replied, dropping a seven down as Cisco missed the ball.

"Checkmate." Dr. wells said, causing Barry to speed over, while Cisco retrieved the ping pong ball.

"Wait, checkmate?" he asked.

"Checkmate." Wells replied. "I guess we still have a few things left to learn, don't we, Mr. Allen?"

An alarm began beeping. "Armed robbery at 4th and Collins." Cisco said. Adelia set her cards down, and was gone in a moment.

"For the record, I crushed it at Operation, Ping Pong, and Uno." Barry said.

Adelia arrived at the crime scene and took out a couple of the criminals before Barry even got there. One of them shot the driver of the truck that was being robbed.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Barry asked.

"St. Andrews." Caitlin answered. "Seven blocks north, two east."

"Call the ER, tell them they have an incoming GSW." Barry said. The whirring of motors alerted both speedsters as the criminals began speeding away from the scene on their motorcycles. Adelia ran after them, but one of them seemed to be ready for this, taking out his gun and shooting it at her. She easily dodged the bullets, but ended up tripping in the process, and rolled into the grass on the side of the road. By the time she was back on her feet, they were gone.

"And this is where my team monitors the police bands for criminal activity." Adelia looked up as she heard Barry's voice. Walking in with him was an unfamiliar woman with blonde hair. "We can track anything that's happening in the city. Check this out. We've got our own satellite."

"I know." the woman responded. "I've hacked into it from time to time."

"Rude." Cisco said as he and Caitlin walked towards the two. Adelia stood a few feet back, confused as to what was going on.

"It is, of course, so wonderful to see you again Felicity." Caitlin said. "I'm just wondering how much of our operation she needs to know about."

"I am really good at keeping secrets." the woman, Felicity, said.

"Yeah, Felicity works with the Arrow." Barry said, pointing at her.

"Sweet." Cisco said.

"And you apparently are not." Felicity stated, looking at Barry.

"Now it's all making sense, you know who the Arrow is." Cisco said.

"Hold on." Adelia said. "I'm sorry, who's this, and why does everybody, but me, know her?"

"Oh, right. This is Felicity." Caitlin said. "We met her while you were in the coma. Felicity, this is my sister Adelia."

"Nice to meet you." Felicity said as Dr. Wells came in.

"Welcome, Ms. Smoak." he said.

"Dr. Wells?" Felicity said. "The Dr. Wells?"

"Please, call me Harrison, Felicity." Wells said.

"Oh, you know who I am?" Felicity asked.

"Ranked second in the National Informative Technology competition at age 19, graduated M.I.T. with Masters Degree in Cyber Security and Computer Sciences. I know who you are. I keep an eye out for promising talent in scientific fields. It's what brought me Cisco, Caitlin, Adelia, and I foresaw great things from you."

"Speaking of great things." Barry said, drawing Felicity's attention back to him. "Want to see something cool?"

Minutes later, Barry was on the treadmill, running, while the rest of the team and Felicity watched from the other side of the glass.

"How fast can he run?" Felicity asked.

"He hasn't even reached his top speed yet." Dr. Wells replied. "Theoretically speaking."

"So, is he really okay?" Felicity asked.

"His heart is within normal heart range for him." Caitlin answered.

"No, I mean, the lightning bolt changed him." Felicity said. "Do any of you know how much?"

"We know a fair amount." Cisco answered.

"If everything about him his sped up, is he going to age faster?" Felicity asked. "What would happen if he ran too fast? I mean, would he just be running, and then, poof, he's dust in a red costume?"

All eyes turned on Wells, and he said, "Everything we do here at S.T.A.R. Labs is to protect Barry Allen. Trust us, Felicity, he's in very good hands here."

"Wanna see how fast I can run backwards?" Barry yelled suddenly from the other side of the glass.

"Barry, that's not-" Adelia was cut off as Barry crashed into the wall behind. "-a good idea."

"Don't worry." Caitlin told Felicity. "He heals quickly, too."

"How long has it been missing?" Dr. Wells asked Cisco, who had just made the discovery that some weapon, one he made in case Barry turned out to be a bad person, had gone missing.

"I don't know." Cisco answered, staring into the empty storage space where the weapon had been.

"I'm going to ask you again, Cisco." Wells said. "But when I do, I expect a more specific answer than I don't know. Now, how long has this weapon been gone?"

"A day, maybe two." Cisco answered. "One of the janitors didn't show up for work this morning. He was probably the one who took it. I didn't think that-"

Dr. Wells slammed the door of the spot where the weapon had been held, and said angrily, "You didn't think, because if you had, you would have discussed with me first your desire to build something that could, in theory, hurt someone, and in particular Barry and Adelia."

"I'm sorry." Cisco said slowly. "If you would just let me explain-"

"You know how I feel about weapons, Cisco." Dr. Wells said. "They do not belong in S.T.A.R. Labs. Now, you are going to figure out a way to locate this gun. And you are gonna do it right now."

Once he finished talking, he turned and wheeled out of the room.

"This thing you built, what can it do?" Caitlin asked.

"Bad stuff." Cisco answered vaguely.

Barry sped into S.T.A.R. Labs. "Snart was spotted downtown." he said.

"Who's that?" Caitlin asked.

"Oh, um, one of the robbers from earlier." he answered.

"Okay." Adelia said, getting to her feet. "Let's go."

Once they arrived on scene, Barry immediately had to push Joe out of the way of some blast, and it instead hit Barry.

"You okay?" Joe asked Barry.

"It burns." Barry answered. Adelia noticed a thin layer of ice had formed over Barry's torso where he'd been hit with the blast.

"Hey, Cisco?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"What did your weapon do again?"

"Why?"

"Because I think we just found it." Adelia answered, as Leonard Snart shot the weapon at her, she quickly ducked behind a pillar. "Snart has it."

There was a brief pause, then Cisco said, "Don't let it hit you."

"No, I thought it was going to be fun to get hit by an anti-speedster weapon." she said.

"Time for a test run." she heard Snart say. Adelia ran out as she heard the gun fire, and moved a couple out of the way as Snart fired at them. Barry was speeding around to get others out of shooting range, and then Snart shot at a man who was in the doorway of a theater. Adelia sped in the direction, and moved the man out of the way, but not before the blast hit herself.

"It's still numb." Barry said once they were back in S.T.A.R. Labs.

"It's presenting itself like third degree frostbite." Caitlin said.

"I thought he had hyper-healing?" Felicity asked.

"It's been slowed." Caitlin responded. "If your cells weren't regenerating at the rate they are, your blood vessels would have frozen solid, and the nerve damage would have been permanent. You're both lucky to be alive."

"Snart wasn't another meta-human." Barry said as he stood up and began to pace around the Cortex. "He had some kind of gun. It froze things, slowed me down."

"According to his record, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school, so how did he manage to build a hand held high tech snow machine?" Felicity asked.

"S.T.A.R. Labs built the cold gun." Dr. Wells answered.

"They didn't have anything to do with this." Cisco said. "I built the gun."

"You did?" Barry asked. "Why?"

"Because speed and cold are opposites." Cisco replied. "Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is, and when things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement at all, it's called-"

"Absolute zero." Barry cut Cisco off.

"Yeah." Cisco said. "I designed a compact cryo engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you. I-I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I mean, what if you turned out to be some psycho, like Mardon or Nimbus?"

"But I didn't?" Barry asked angrily. "Did I?"

"We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good, and it blew up." Caitlin said. "In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst."

"I can understand that, but what I can't understand is why you didn't tell me what you did." Barry said. "I mean, after all we've been through, I thought you trusted me. I thought we were friends."

"We are, Barry." Cisco said.

"I mean, if you would have just told me, I could have been prepared." Barry said. "But instead, somebody could have died tonight."

Cisco nodded. "I know."

"Do you?" Barry asked, and walked out.

"I figure out a way to stop Captain Cold." Cisco said as he walked into a Cortex with a tablet in hand. Adelia looked at him.

"Really?" she asked.

"You gotta stop naming these guys." Caitlin said.

"Barry, listen to him." Dr. Wells instructed. Barry reluctantly turned to face Cisco.

"How?" he asked.

"The cold gun is powered by an engine control unit, a microcomputer that regulates air to fuel ratios so the sub-cooled fluid in the chambers don't overflow and-"

"Explode." Felicity said, cutting off Cisco, who turned around and pointed at her.

"Right." he said, before walking around to the desk. "This E.C.U. was receiving updates wirelessly from my tablet. If I boost the signal using Central City's network and send a false update, we'll get a ping back, and then-"

"We can locate Snart." Wells said.

"How long will it take?" Barry asked.

"Uh, first I have to hack into the city's network, so, I don't know, thirty minutes, maybe?" Cisco said.

"I can do it in less than one." Felicity volunteered, going to one of the computers. "When it comes to hacking, I'm the fastest woman alive." She cracked her fingers. "Ugh, that was not as badass as I pictured. Alright, I'm in."

"Are you kidding?" Caitlin asked.

"Alright, I'm sending the updates." Cisco said. "We're connected."

"Network is triangulating the location." Felicity said.

"We got him." Caitlin said. "He's heading west on Nelson toward the train station."

"If he's leaving, it appears Mr. Snart may have gotten what he came for." Dr. Wells said. Barry quickly changed into his suit.

"When we put our minds to it, nothing can stop us, dude." Cisco said, then Barry turned his comms off. "Oh, you turned your ear piece off. How are we gonna talk to each other?"

"I don't feel like talking right now." Barry answered, then he was gone.

"Such an idiot." Adelia muttered, before she and her suit were gone too.

She followed him onto the train Snart was on.

"There's nowhere to run." Barry said, and Snart pointed the cold gun at them.

"I didn't see you before." Snart said. "Your mom know you're out past your bedtime?"

"If you wanted to get away, you should have taken something faster with a train." Barry said.

"That's if I wanted to get away." Snart said.

"Meaning?" Adelia asked.

"I've seen your weakness at the armored car, then at the theater. See, while you're busy saving everybody, I'll be saving myself." Snart said, then pointed the cold gun at the floor, and fired it. Then the train began to shake and the lights flickered. Passengers began to scream, and Snart pried the doors to the train open. "Good luck with that!" he yelled, the jumped out of the door. The train began to topple off of the tracks, and Adelia raced forward, grabbing passengers and speeding them off of the train, and Barry began to do the same. Adelia landed in the grass after all the passengers were off the train, Barry not far from her.

She heard the sound off the cold gun firing, then she felt it hit her torso. She rolled onto her back with a grimace of pain, and saw Snart with his gun up. "You're pretty fast." he said. "But not fast enough. Thank you."

"For what?" Barry asked.

"You forced me to up my game." Snart answered. "Not only with this gun, but with how I think about the job. It's been educational."

"Drop it." Cisco said from behind Snart. Snart turned his head to look at him, but kept his gun pointed towards Barry and Adelia. With Cisco was Caitlin and Felicity. "This is a prototype cold gun, four times the size, four times the power."

"I was wondering who you were talking to." Snart said, looking back at Barry and Adelia.

"Hey, unless you want a taste of your own medicine, I'd back the hell up." Cisco said.

"Your hands are shaking, you've never killed anyone." Snart said.

"There's a first time for everything, Captain Cold." Cisco said, and adjusted the gun in hand. "I will shoot you."

"You win, kid." Snart said, lowering the gun. "I'll see you around."

He turned to walk away, but Cisco said, "Hey, leave the diamond."

"Don't push your luck." Snart said.

Once Snart was gone, the gun was turned off, Cisco shook his head. "Couldn't shoot him if I wanted to." he said, with a small laugh. "This is actually the S.T.A.R. Labs vacuum cleaner with a lot of LEDs."

Caitlin and Felicity pulled the two speedsters to their feet. "Let's get you warm." Felicity said.

"Thank you." Barry said.

"We've been trying to track Snart, but he must have disconnected the signal somehow." Cisco said.

"We'll find him, Cisco, somehow." Barry said.

"You have a great team here, Barry." Felicity said. "Speaking of teams, I should probably get back to mine."

"It was nice meeting you, Ms. Smoak." Dr. Wells said. "Please extend a hello to the Arrow for us."

"I will." Felicity said.

"Goodbye, Felicity." Barry said.

"Bye, Barry." Felicity said, and the two hugged before Felicity left.


	8. Chapter 7

Adelia, Caitlin, and Cisco sat at a table in a bar, watching as Iris and her boyfriend, Eddie, play a game of darts. Barry walked over to their table carrying a tray of shots and sat down at the open seat. "Guys." he said, grabbing the attention of all three. "I have a problem."

"We all do when guys like him exist." Cisco said, still looking at Eddie. Caitlin looked back at Eddie.

"Yeah, he's so hot." she said, then quickly turned back to face the other three as Barry rolled his eyes. "Uh, I mean, genetically speaking, because I'm a geneticist, of course. Oh my god, do I sound like Felicity?"

"I'm not talking about Eddie." Barry said. "I'm talking about this." He quickly drank the five shots. "I can't feel anything."

"Yeah, that's usually what happens when you drink to much." Cisco said.

"No, the alcohol is not affecting me." Barry said. "I mean I literally feel nothing."

"It's your hyper-metabolism." Caitlin said, reaching for her purse. "I need a sample."

"I'll get more shots." Cisco said, standing up and heading towards the bar while Caitlin went through her purse.

"I swear I had a vacutainer in here." she said. Barry frowned at her.

"Wait, you carry a blood collection kit in your purse?" he asked.

"You have your hobbies." was Caitlin's reply as she pulled the kit out. Cisco was back with three shots, handing one to Caitlin and Barry. He sat back down, and Barry gave Adelia a curious look.

"I don't drink, hate the taste." she stated. "I just like to come with a watch drunk Cisco. There was this one time-"

"Okay, that's enough." Cisco said, putting his hand over Adelia's mouth to muffle her words. She swatted the hand away.

"Whatever. Just have your shots." she said, grinning as she grabbed her glass of sprite and sipped it. The other three clinked their shot glasses together, before drinking them.

"Still nothing?" Cisco asked when Barry just looked disappointed.

"I can't get drunk." Barry said. "I mean, I'm only twenty-five, and my drinking days are already over."

"Come on, Allen, you're up." Eddie said as he walked over. He pulled out his phone and looked at it when it buzzed. "There was a bombing on 8th and Pass. I gotta go, babe. I'm sorry, guys."

"I've got an early shift at Jitters." Iris said after Eddie walked out, and Caitlin yawned. "Barry, we'll catch up tomorrow."

"It's getting late, anyway, so I'm just gonna..." Barry said. Adelia stood up.

"Let's go, Allen." she said, and before Barry could respond, she was gone.

"She does realize we're in public, right?" Barry asked, and Cisco shrugged.

Barry arrived to the scene shortly after Adelia. "You've got to start keeping up." she said.

"Haha." Barry said dryly, looking up the building where a man was dangling from one of those window washer platforms. "Guys, there's a window washer and he's gonna fall."

"Don't try and catch him. You don't have super strength." Cisco said.

"Well, is there like a bed store near here?" Barry asked, and while he spoke, Adelia sped inside the building and began going up the stairs. "What if I get a bunch of mattresses and stack them?"

"Barry, this isn't a road runner cartoon." Caitlin said. Adelia stopped on the twentieth floor of the building, then broke the window, and saved the person. She sped back down, and set him on the sidewalk.

"You good?" she asked, and the man nodded. Adelia walked over to Barry. "There's stairs, you know?"

"Yeah, but you broke the window." Barry said. "We could have, like, ran up the side of the building."

"And if that failed, then what?" Adelia asked. Barry opened his mouth to answer, but his eye caught something behind Adelia. She turned to look, and saw Iris standing there.

And before another second passed, both speedsters were gone.

"A VA file number is all the info you have on the bomber?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah." Barry answered. "CCPD's been ordered off of the case."

"Well, who has the power to do that?" Caitlin asked.

"The army." Barry said, crossing his arms. "Some general. His name was Eiling, I think."

"General Wade Eiling." Dr. Wells said as he wheeled into the room.

"You know him?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I know him." Dr. Wells said. "About ten years ago, General Wade Eiling contracted S.T.A.R. Labs to develop enhanced gene therapies for soldiers. I was interested in the potential medical benefit for civilians. General Eiling really wanted to develop mind reading capabilities for interrogation purposes. I stopped the study when I saw his techniques up close, but our split was less than amicable."

"Well, he took all the evidence I collected on the bombing." Barry said. "Everything but the folder."

"Well, lucky for us, the VA finally joined the new millennium and digitized their records." Cisco said as Caitlin walked over to the desk. "A lot of redacted info. But, our girl's name is Bette Sans Souci, an EOD specialist for the army."

"EOD?" Caitlin asked.

"Bombs." Cisco clarified.

"Is there an address?" Barry asked.

"Hold on...here we go." Cisco said. "One person in case of emergency. Cameron Scott. Inglewood."

"I'll go check it out." Barry said, before running out, taking his suit with him. Then a few minutes later, the comms went dead and nothing was coming back from the suit.

"Barry?" Cisco said. "Barry, can you hear me? Barry?"

"There must be a perfectly reasonable reason for why he's not answering." Caitlin said. "Barry?"

Adelia stood up from her seat at the desk to go after Barry, before a rush of wind hit their faces. Barry walked in, pulling a S.T.A.R. Labs shirt over his head.

"Uh-"

"Don't ask." Barry said.

"I'm gonna ask." Cisco stated. "Where's my suit?"

"It's gone." Barry answered.

"Gone?" Adelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean it's gone?" Cisco asked. "What did you do with my suit?"

"It blew up, dude." Barry said, and Cisco raised his eyebrows. "I managed to get out of it before it went kaboom."

"My suit went kaboom?" Cisco asked.

"Fun fact about Bette Sans Souci." Barry said. "She's not carrying bombs. She touched the emblem on the suit, and turned it into a bomb."

"So she's a meta?" Adelia asked. Barry nodded.

"Yeah." he said.

"With the ability to cause spontaneous combustion upon tactile contact." Dr. Wells said. Cisco looked at him.

"She blew up my suit." he complained.

"You have, like, three more." Caitlin said, giving him a look.

"Okay, I have two and I loved that one." Cisco said.

"Alright, what else do we know about her?" Barry asked, leaning against the back of the desk.

"Oh, I don't know, she's pure evil." Cisco said, reaching for the keyboard of the computer. "We're gonna find this girl and send her butt into the pipeline. No one blow my tech to smithereens and gets away with it...unless she looks like that."

"I don't think she meant to hurt me." Barry said.

"Well, her being a meta-human explains General Eiling's interest in her." Dr. Wells said.

"And why he stole the case from us." Joe said as he walked in. Adelia turned to look at him. "He didn't want anyone to know what she can do."

"Detective." Wells said with a small nod towards Joe.

"Doctor." Joe replied. "So...human bomb. Must be Tuesday in Central City."

"Yes, and General Eiling's not one to give up a potential asset without a fight." Dr. Wells said.

"We have to find her before he does." Barry said.

"Barry? Can I see you for a second?" Joe asked. Barry nodded, and the two walked out into the hallway. Adelia glanced at her phone.

"It is Tuesday." she said. "What do you think about we're done with this meta, we get some tacos?"

"Hell yeah. Taco Tuesday." Cisco replied with a grin.

"Bette Sans Souci was just spotted in Inglewood." Cisco said. "It's in the same neighborhood as the office of, uh, Harold Hadley, a military surgeon who performed many procedures on her. I'll let Barry know, you get out there."

Adelia nodded as Cisco pulled out his phone. She sped out of S.T.A.R. Labs towards Inglewood.

She got there, and multiple military trucks were outside. "Guys, Eiling is already here." she said.

"Well, find her before he does." Cisco said. Adelia sped inside, and found Bette inside. Barry was next to me in a few moments. But before anything else could happen, a window shattered, and Bette was hit by something. She fell to the floor, and Barry went to her side.

"Look, we can get you out of here." Barry said. "We can help you understand what happened to you."

"How?" Bette asked as she held her injured shoulder.

"Because it happened to us, too." Barry answered. "Please."

"Trust us." Adelia said, and another window broke. Some device landed on the desk, but before it went off, Barry and Adelia sped out of there, taking Bette with them.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, a simulation of the particle accelerator explosion was playing on the many screens.

"As the detonation dispersed throughout Central City, and number of people were exposed to a wave of unquantifiable energy." Dr. Wells explained, then looked at Bette. "One of those people was you." Caitlin handed Bette a pair of gloves. "You were in Central City ten months ago."

"I had just returned from Afghanistan." Bette said as she put the gloves on. "I was there diffusing roadside bombs and shrapnel ripped through me. I was flown back stateside. Spent months at the base recuperating. And next thing I know, I became the thing that almost killed me. And Eiling's new favorite lab rat."

"The dark matter must have combined with the bomb particulate inside your body." Caitlin said. Bette looked at her.

"I thought Eiling did this to me." she said.

"Eiling is not smart enough to create someone like you." Dr. Wells said. "But clever enough to see your value."

"Do you know of any others who were changed?" Bette asked.

"There've been a few." Caitlin said.

"But no one that looks like you." Cisco said, causing Caitlin to look at him with a glare. Barry covered his face with one of his hands, and Adelia's eyebrows shot up. "I'm sorry, that was inappropriate." He laughed nervously under Caitlin's gaze. "Please don't leave."

"I know how to perform a lobotomy." Caitlin stated.


End file.
